James T Kirk; The Next Generation
James T Kirk; The Next Generation Chapter One--Rust Buckets Our story begins at a spaceport that orbits Rigel-7 James T Kirk; that was his name, or better put, that was his real name. But it had been three years since he had gone by that name. Three years since his entire life was turned upside down and he found himself in the late 24th century. Three years since his friends and crew mates, Chekov and Uhura, died before his very eyes. Only two others knew Jim Kirk's real name and story (more on this later Savvy readers). Not even Kirk's wife in this time period knew his story. Her name was Myran Javoh. Many times he had wanted to tell her how he came to live in the late 24th century. However, Jim Kirk knew of the possible danger that could come to Myran if she knew who he really was. He couldn't even risk telling her his real name, thus Jim Kirk went by the alias of Robert Crane. The married couple waited patiently at the Rigel-7 spaceport hub for their flight. After two years of begging him to do so, Myran had finally persuaded Kirk to visit her home world of Bajor. The spaceport, which was in orbit of Rigel-7, was very busy. The transport vessel would soon be arriving from Vulcan, and once it was refueled, and the Rigel-7 passengers boarded, it would resume its journey to Deep Space 9, and from there, to the planet Bajor. Up to that point they had spent all of their marriage on the small planet of Timus Prime, where they had met and fell in love. Myran worked as a school teacher on the small colony world, and Jim Kirk ran an old style antique store. Not only did Kirk sale aged Earth antiques, but antiques from all over the galaxy. The antique business was actually set up for him by the Department of Temporal Investigations, so that Jim Kirk could live out the rest of his life in quiet obscurity. The two agents he had dealt with ever since arriving in the 24th century, Agents Dulmer and Lucsly, had been very helpful in that regard. After Kirk's new life was established with fake IDs, and a workable biography, the two agents left Jim Kirk to find a new destiny. Jim Kirk stared out the large window at the arriving and departing vessels. There had been much engineering developments since the 23rd century, and Jim Kirk felt like a child at a candy store. Myran came over to her husband, and handed him a cup of coffee. "Robert, you look like them," Myran said, as she pointed over at two small children. "In fact, I think you're more excited than they are; looking at the space ships flying by." Just like Jim Kirk was, the two young human boys were in awe of all the different kind of ships coming and going. "Yeah," Kirk said as he sipped his coffee, "we don't get this kind of traffic back at home." "Robert," Myran said, "I could always get a transfer, you could move your store, and we could move to another world that is busier and with larger cities. It might be fun to live in a large city." Kirk reached out and touched the wrinkles on her nose with his index finger in a loving way, and then held her closer. "No," Kirk said, "I like Timus because it is quiet. I love our home, I love the canyons nearby. And I know how important you are to your students." "There will be always be students," Myran told him. "Perhaps, but they will not always have a teacher like you." Although those were good reasons to stay, they weren't the main reason Kirk wanted to stay on Timus. It was no accident Kirk had ended up on the small colony world. Timus was indeed a world that was well off the beaten track of interstellar space travel, and that's why Kirk had lived there. Even though over a hundred years had passed, and he wore his hear differently, Kirk knew that if he spent too much time in large cities, someone could always recognized him. It had been decided that in order for Jim Kirk to stay forgotten, it was best he live on a forgotten world. Kirk had to remind himself that although he, Chekov and Uhura, moved forward in time, their other selves had lived full lives. What happened? Kirk and the other two had been teleported across the galaxy, and unexpectedly, two sets of duplicates had been created. One set of Kirk-Uhura-Chekov had, according to Dulmer and Lucsly, ended up on a strange world where they were to have become arena fighters, and breeding stock, on a world where beings gambled on the contests. The other set of duplicates had arrived on the same world, but in the 24th century. Chekov and Uhura had died instantly upon arrival, but Kirk survived and was eventually rescued by a Pakled survey expedition that had come to the world and had no idea who he was; which was when his new life had started. "Well," Myran said, bringing Kirk out of his memories, "it's something to think about at least." "Look at that one!" One of the boys suddenly said. "I think it's a Klingon ship," the other said, "Vor'cha class I think." "Actually," Kirk said, correcting the child, "It's a K'Tinga battlecruiser," he added with awe in his voice. Although Kirk had done battle with many K'tinga's in his time, he had always secretly admired the look of the Klingon ship. "Oh yeah," the child said, "You're right. It's one of those old rust buckets." Kirk was about to challenge the assertion the ship was a rust bucket, because in an indirect way he saw himself as that ship, but Myran stopped him. "Come on Robert," Myran said, "we better get over to our boarding square." Kirk picked up the three bags they had brought, and looked back, stealing one more glance of the Klingon ship from his time, as it zipped away. "Rust bucket?" Kirk asked himself softly, "Never." (next issue...James T Kirk arrives on DEEP SPACE NINE)